


Exit Wounds

by GankingMonsters (FireHawke)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fallen Castiel, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Inspired by Art, can be taken as romantic or platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-25
Updated: 2013-04-25
Packaged: 2017-12-09 12:29:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/774196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireHawke/pseuds/GankingMonsters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Inspired by fanart on Tumblr. Posted there first.</p><p>Nothing but time seemed to heal Castiel’s wounds where his beautiful wings used to sprout.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Exit Wounds

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the fanart from BrightFallenStars. Credit goes to her for the inspiration, words are mine.

                                                                                     

 

It took months, after Castiel fell, for the wounds on his back to finally piece themselves together enough to stitch the skin back. For the first weeks of being human, he laid either on his side or his stomach, with large bandages over each seeping injury. It was often that Dean - and sometimes both Sam and Dean - had to change his gauze in a day, especially if he were up and moving about. Nothing but time seemed to heal Castiel’s wounds where his beautiful wings used to sprout.

After the scars had taken up residence on either side of his spine, they would sometimes wake him with their phantom pains. Soldiers most often received the same kind of phenomenon after a limb was amputated. Something to do with nerves, he had read when Sam decided to research how to help him overcome it. It would never go away, they learned.

It was only during the recovery period of a malicious salt-and-burn when his charges, and now brothers-in-arms, pulled him to a tattoo parlor to get the antipossession tattoo. It stung, but Castiel surmised that if he could live through his grace — his wings — being torn from him, that he could survive a tattoo.

The idea came to him whilst Sam was seated behind him, warm hands rubbing strong thumbs into the flawed skin in an attempt to alleviate his pains before bed. The idea that he  _could_  have his wings back… in a sense.

It took hard work, extra rounds of hustled poker and pool to get him money while making sure that they also had money enough to eat and for lodging and gas, but he cried the day he saw his wings back on his body. Cried against the smiles of Sam and Dean, giving them back a sobbed toothy grin as he thanked the artist for his work. 

He may not be the same as he once was, but like all of God’s creatures, the ability to adapt is what matters most.


End file.
